


Zero Doubts

by AgentGreyNevada



Category: Red vs. Blue, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Backstory, F/M, Project Freelancer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:41:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentGreyNevada/pseuds/AgentGreyNevada
Summary: The top tier agent of Project Freelancer must train the rookie and learn how to work in a group once again. The rookie, however, is hiding a drastic secret that could alter the opinions of everyone around her and her future as a freelancer.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Kudos: 4





	1. Announcement

Agent Zero walked with a purpose down the long corridor on the upper level of the Mother of Invention. Not many others were around - the rest of the freelancers were down in the rec room enjoying their sparse free time. He was summoned by the Counselor to speak to the Director on the bridge, not completely out of the ordinary for Zero. He was often brought up here to speak about his upcoming solo work or training. But this time...it felt different. 

The doors whooshed open as he entered the bridge, large windows paneling two walls in the far right corner showing the vast darkness of space laying beyond them as the MOI drifted slowly through no gravity. The wall on Zero's right hand side was covered with monitors and a few workstations, currently vacant. The Director stood at his perch, observing the crew working at a relaxed pace. 

"Sir, you wished to see me?" Zero spoke once within earshot of the Director, his EVA helmet slightly distorting the southern twang in his voice. He never removed his helmet in front of others, even the Director. 

The Director turned to face his top agent, his glasses reflecting the light from above, concealing his eyes. "Agent Zero, how nice of you to come so quickly." The agent nodded to the recognition, but it was part of his job to be prompt and the right hand for the Director. "We have a...situation." 

"Whatever it is, I can handle it. I'm trained to be your best." Zero affirmed with a slight nod, willing to take the job before even knowing what it was. The Director raised a brow, implying that this was a task out of Zero's normal dosage. 

"Agent Zero, are you sure you-" The Counselor tried to intervene to Zero's ignorant compliance before the Director spoke over him. 

"Fine. You are expected to train Agent Nevada to be up to par as the rest of your group, preferably as soon as possible." The Director spoke, his aggressive tone being mellowed out by his southern accent. Zero blinked under his helmet. 

"....excuse me?" He obviously wasn't expecting this turn of events, his brain still processing the Director's strange request. 

"Agent Nevada is one of the newest recruits, and she is...how to put this lightly....struggling." The Counselor elaborated. "Her transition from civilian to soldier has been nothing more than a challenge, and her skillset is subpar. Since you are our top agent in all fields, we thought it would be wise to pair you two together." Zero didn't know Nevada well - she was most definitely young and naive, and was shy, choosing not to socialize with most of the freelancers. He had seen her in passing or on the training floor, doing basic routines that he remembered performing a couple years back when he was the rookie. He didn't really pay much attention to her technique, but he assumed he would have no chance but to do so now. 

"...may I speak freely, sir?" Zero turned his head slightly to address the Director. 

"No you may not." He shut him down as he turned back around to look over the viewing ledge at the control floor. "I expect the utmost from you, Agent. Do not fail me."

* * *

Zero sulked back to the elevator, pondering what in God's name he would do to train the rookie. He hasn't heard much about her besides for the code name of Nevada and that she was fresh out of basic as of two months ago when she arrived on station. _How the hell did she make it here if she's awful at everything?_ He questioned to himself as he took the elevator down to the training floor. 

As much as he wanted to pretend this task did not exist, he couldn't disobey the orders of the Director, the man who gave him everything. Zero exited the elevator and followed the hallway down to the central training facility. He stalked around the outer hallway with the multiple viewing rooms, peering through the windows to see Agent Nevada on the training floor. He was quite surprised she was there, given what the Counselor had just said about her. _Maybe she has a good work ethic, but her skills are lacking, that would be the most favorable situation,_ He thought as he watched. She was maneuvering around a weighted kicking bag, throwing various jabs and kicks, her technique being average at best. Zero squinted. 

"She needs a lot of work." He muttered quietly as he saw her finish up, wiping sweat from her brow and grabbing her gear that was placed off to the side of the ring. Zero followed the corridor to where she exited the facility. 

"Nevada." He spoke coldly. The young agent jumped to his rather intimidating voice, not expecting him to be in these parts at this hour. Zero stuck to a rigid schedule, often utilizing the facilities in the early morning hours and retreating to his quarters for most of the late afternoon into evening. 

"Y-Yes, Sir?" Her voice shook. Nevada looked to Zero as an idol, given his talent and expertise as the best agent of the project and found it nerve racking that he wanted to speak to her, of all people. 

"...tomorrow. 7am. Be warmed up." He walked past. 

"W-Wait, why-" 

"I'm your new trainer." 


	2. Day One

Nevada obeyed the orders given by Zero and was on the training floor, warmed up by 7am. Her being nervous was an understatement. 

Right when the clock hit 7, Zero entered the training room dressed in all of his armor as per usual. "Push ups. Now." 

"W-What?" Nevada was confused and unnerved by his sudden command. 

"Push. Ups." Zero hated repeating himself as his teeth gritted under his visor. Nevada instantly dropped to the floor, realizing how serious he was as she set her hands a little farther than shoulder width and began doing push ups, finding a steady rhythm after the first couple. She breathed out on every downward motion, sweat forming on her forehead and palms of her hands. Zero didn't give a directive on how many push ups to perform, so she kept going. 

20\. 

...

30.

...

40.

...

Nevada's arms were shaking by the time she reached the lower 50s. Her pace drastically slowed as she grunted, trying to keep going. Zero watched from seven feet away, his arms crossed. _How the hell did she even make it through basic if she's already sucking wind..._

She paused for a moment, heart beating in her throat as her knees touched the ground. She was on number 57. 

"Stand up." Zero ordered, unfolding his arms and taking a step towards her on the training mat. Shakily, Nevada stood up, her arms feeling like jello. "Fight me." 

"W-Wait, what?" Her voice quivered from the tension and also not being able to catch her breath. 

"You heard me." Zero lunged forward, a punch going right for her jaw. She had enough time to evade before attempting a sweep kick to Zero's legs. She was not strong enough, her leg merely colliding with his shin armor as he looked at her, a smirk painted on his face. Not like she can see it through his visor. 

"Fuck!" She grunted, recoiling and trying to back away. Unknown to her, the Director and Counselor watched from the mezzanine. 

"Recover, Nevada," Zero pushed as he lunged once more, going for her torso. She dodged, rolling onto the floor and standing back up to get away from him. "Don't run, fight me." 

"W-What if I don't want to?" I stuttered, trying to catch my breath. Zero stood up, cracking his fingers before his neck. 

"As a soldier in this program, it is an order." The highly trained operative did a slide kick to Nevada's side, causing her to curl inward. He wrapped his arm around her neck, not purposefully trying to choke or break her neck, but to give her a lesson. "You should be able to easily defend yourself from a simple choke hold." 

She could've if she wanted to. 

Nevada had a dangerous little secret. She had this...strange ability. She could move things with her mind. Although she could easily throw Zero off her and kill him in an instant, she would most likely be taken prisoner to be tested on. She didn't want that. 

She had to use her power as sparingly as possible. 

Nevada struggled to breathe as she jerked her head to the left, using her ability to cause Zero to loosen his grip suddenly as she wiggled herself away from his grasp. 

"What the fuck!" Zero cursed under his helmet as he tried to go after Nevada. She fell backwards on the floor and he landed on top of her, straddling her cockpiece in her armor. He wound up his arm like he was going to punch. "Alright." Zero dropped his arm and got off Nevada. "Push ups." He stepped over her and back to his observation corner. 

Nevada ripped off her helmet, feeling like she couldn't breathe. She was hunched over on the floor, her hair falling out of her top bun as she coughed. 

"Did you not hear me?" Zero bent down. "PUSH UPS." 

"Y-Yes Sir..." She croaked out as she got into position and began doing the exercise. Zero looked up to the mezzanine, well aware that their superiors were watching. 

After a few moments, Nevada collapsed to the ground in complete exhaustion. She wheezed from her chest and a loud noise was heard overhead. 

"Agent Zero, that's enough. Get her out her armor." The Director spoke before shutting off the Comm system. 

"Yes Sir," Zero spoke clearly as he came over to pick her up off the floor. "Come on Nev, let's get you in the locker room." Nevada, supported by Zero, was able to walk her way to the unisex locker room that was connected to the training facility. She held onto her helmet in her left hand, while her right arm was slung around Zero's wide shoulders. He walked her to their destination and propped her on a bench. "Can you take off your armor?" 

Nevada nodded slowly, her chest still heaving from being really out of shape. "Y-Yeah..." She exhaled and began working on getting her chest piece off. 

"Will you be fine if I leave you be?" Zero inquired, standing about 3 feet in front of Nevada, observing her. She was purely exhausted, clearing her throat and nodding to Zero's question. 

"Y-Yeah, just...needs some time." She pried her chest piece off, giving a sigh of relief once it was on the floor next to you. Nevada looked up to Zero with tired eyes. He acknowledged her answer with a simple nod. 

"Very well, get some food in your system, we'll continue with training later." Zero walked away, leaving Nevada alone to her thoughts. Once Zero exited the locker room, he typed something on his tactical pad. 

_Day One: Nevada is severely deconditioned. Will inquire about her prior training. She managed to escape a choke hold, rather impressive. Tonight will focus on gun training and hopefully crack her shell a little bit. We have a long way to go from here._


	3. Concussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out, I will acknowledge which character's perspective the chapter is written in for first person. 
> 
> This chapter is in Nevada's perspective.

_Two weeks later_

"Nevada, you're not listening to me." Zero berated down on me. I could feel his frustration and anger exuding from under his EVA helmet. "Do the technique as I taught you. Don't fuck it up." 

"...yes sir..." I muttered, growing tired of doing the same exercises and martial arts combinations every day for hours on end. I tried again, executing the technique against the punching bag - reverse punch, back leg round kick, spin hook kick to the face-

"NO!" Zero shouted, his gloved hands going to his helmet. "You hit with your _ball_ on the round kick, not the top of your foot. You'll easily break that in a fight regardless if you have armor on." Zero grunted in frustration, pacing at the edge of the rubber mat. "We're done for today. I can't deal with your bullshit. Go shower and work on it. I'll see you 7am tomorrow." Zero walked off after gathering his belongings. I stayed on the mat, exhausted and catching my breath. _Why couldn't I do anything right?_

* * *

"Let's test how far you've come." Zero began the next morning at 7am sharp. "FILSS, please set the floor for hand to hand target practice." 

" _At your command, Agent Zero._ " The AI responded as green floating tiles appeared around me. 

"Hit as many targets as you can in the time limit provided by FILSS." Zero instructed. I nodded, getting into a fighting stance. I proceeded to attack the moving targets, moving as quickly as I could. The timer went off as I threw down my hands and FILSS displayed my accuracy - 66%. 

"Not good enough." Zero crossed his arms. "Focus on precision - go slower, and focus on the power in your attack, rather than your speed. I would rather have you hit hard and knock them out the first time than just soft, quick jabs which takes longer to take someone out." He directed. "Run it again." 

I breathed out, FILSS resetting the training floor as I did a second round, taking Agent Zero's advice of using more bite in my punches and not worrying about speed. The time ran out and my accuracy shot up to 78%. 

"Good improvement. Keep working on that outside of our sessions. The Director will be happy with these results." Zero nodded, signaling FILSS to end the simulation. "Now, moving on to fighting." He stepped back into the ring, cracking the knuckles on his fingers. "Get your armor on." 

"Y-Yes Sir!" I bolted to the armory, connected to the training facilities and got my grey armor on. Making sure everything was in place, I headed back out into the ring, my purple highlights standing out in the facility lighting. 

"Ready, rookie?" Zero taunted, getting into a defensive stance. "We'll fight till one of us gives. You know the rules." I nodded to the terms, also getting into a sparring stance. Although I've only been training with him for two weeks, I knew I made some improvements, even if they were minor. I began by charging into him with a push side kick to his hip bone. It caused him to move backwards slightly but he retaliated with a punch to my upper chest. I grunted, falling backwards and landing on my elbow. My armor absorbed most of the blow, but the fall felt worse. I spun around on the floor, trying to use my leg momentum to knock Zero's legs out from under him, but it only made him stumble slightly. 

"Nice try, rookie. You're learning. But I know you're tricks." Zero muttered, allowing me to stand back up before charging with a flurry of punches to my chest and torso. They stung, causing me to stumble farther backwards to the edge of the ring. I made a split second move to duck between his legs and pop out on the other side, standing on my feet and bouncing lightly, staying nimble. Zero chuckled as he turned around to face me. "Ah, that's a new one." 

"Always learning, right?" I grunted, jumping towards Zero with full force and landing on his torso, grappling around him like a monkey. I started swinging wildly with my fists, trying to land whatever I could as Zero then hurled me over his shoulders and flat on my back. "Fuck!" 

"Be careful when you try guerrilla tactics. They usually leave you wide open." Zero snickered as he loomed over me, his visor reflecting the lights overhead. He picked me up by my chest plate and threw me out of the ring and against the metal wall. I hit it with a thud, my head whipping back against the metal before it dropped forward. I wheezed, having the air sucked out of me as I felt dizzy for a slight moment. "What, winded Nevada?" Zero taunted, approaching me and grabbing my chest piece once more, landing a sucker punch right to the jaw. 

I flopped onto the floor, trying to catch my breath as Zero continued to throw me around like a rag doll. I didn't want to tap out - I didn't want to look like a wimp. I stood back up, now seeing that Zero was back in the center of the ring. I stumbled back to where he was, holding the back of my head. Even with how durable my helmet was, it was starting to throb. "What, gonna give up?" Zero was persistent with his taunts. 

"No." I grunted, trying to lunge forward once more with a back leg kick but he caught my ankle. He shoved me back onto the ground and mounted my hips, pounding a few punches into my helmet. I heard the visor crack as I kept my eyes closed, feeling my head constantly get thrown back. I opened my eyes to see him throw his helmet back to headbutt me into the floor. 

"...tap out..." I mumbled, the pounding in the back of my head becoming worse. I felt his weight lift off of my armor but his shadow was still over me. 

"Well rookie, you did...good." He sounded pleased that I took his beating. I don't think I've ever heard him sound this content with my performance before. "I see some improvements, but still a long way to go." There was a pause in his pacing. "Nevada, stand up." He commanded. 

I went to move to a sitting position, and instantly felt nauseous. "...I-I don't feel..." I sprawled back out on the ground. "...the w-world is spinning..." 

"Fuck..." Zero knelt next to me, observing the physical crack in my blue tinted visor that he caused. "FILSS, I need a medical team to the training floor, ASAP."

* * *

That was the last thing I heard before passing out. 

I had woken up slowly in a daze in an infirmary bed. The headache was very minor as the doctors stocked me up on painkillers. They said I would be back to normal in a few hours, but the headaches would persist for who knew how long. 

"Hey kiddo." York popped his head in along with Washington. I never understood why those two took a liking to me. "How ya doing?" 

"Head hurts, but that's expected with a concussion." I replied, holding an ice pack to the back of my head to help dull any residual pain. Wash nodded in acknowledgement. 

"Well we _totally_ didn't bet on who would win... " He gave a nervous laugh as York elbowed him in the ribs. 

I shrugged and waved it off. "It's whatever. It'll be the apocalypse if I ever beat Agent Zero in a sparring match." 

York gazed out the window for a minute. "You held your own though, that's good for a rookie." 

"But York," I whined with a wince. "I've been here for two years and like...I'm making so little improvement." 

"That happens sometimes, Nev." York turned to look back at me. "Some people need more time before they reach their pinnacle." 

I sighed. I sucked and I knew it. I had a lot to think about, and the headache wasn't helping. 

I just hoped Zero was sincere with what he said. 


End file.
